Catering to Catch & Kill Lobbyists

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) is proceeding with a controversial plan to stock and study a Class A wild trout water. Critics claim the exercise is being driven less by science than by social pressure, with troubling implications for other prized streams.  

At its July meeting, the agency’s board approved, 7-2, a notice of rulemaking to stock rainbow trout in a three-mile stretch of Freeman Run in Potter County and to monitor impacts on wild brown trout for five years, beginning next spring.

The proposal, now out for public comment, is expected to receive a final vote at the board’s October meeting.

All of Freeman Run is Class A but only section 04 was previously stocked, a longtime practice that was discontinued in 2021 when sampling showed the density and year-class diversity of its wild trout met Class A standards. 

The proposed rulemaking would amend the Fish and Boat Code to manage section 04 under Miscellaneous Special Regulations as all tackle with catch-and-release only for brown trout and harvest permitted on rainbows. 

If final rulemaking is approved, the board will have to vote on granting an exception to stock Freeman Run, section 04, because it does not meet any existing criteria for putting hatchery fish in a Class A stream. 

The proposal provides for discontinuing the stocking or revising regulations before 2030 if wild trout abundance significantly declines or angler use does not justify continuing the effort.

Opponents of the plan say the commission already has enough evidence to know that adding rainbow trout will degrade the self-sustaining fishery.

“A fish and boat commission survey showed the biomass of wild trout increased by 40 percent after stocking was discontinued,” said John Arway, a fisheries biologist and retired executive director of the PFBC.

“What did Einstein say? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Electrofishing in 2022 found 103.23 kilograms of wild browns per hectare (kg/ha), compared with 66.59 kg/ha in 2018–both well above the Class A threshold.

The commission last year implemented a Miscellaneous Special Regulation on 12 of 13 popular, larger Class A waters–the only 13 that it currently stocks–to make wild brown trout catch-and-release only while allowing the harvest of hatchery rainbow and brook trout, to determine if it will mitigate the negative impacts of stocking.

Earlier this year, PFBC staff was tasked with developing a similar strategy for small to mid-size infertile, freestone streams, and Freeman Run section 04 was chosen for the project. 

The description of the proposal as presented in PFBC’s July meeting agenda described “a unique opportunity” to evaluate a stream section that previously was stocked, designated Class A, removed from stocking, and then added back to the program with special regulations.

The plan coincides with persistent lobbying by the Potter County Anglers Club to resume stocking Freeman Run, claiming it would boost the local economy and bring more people to the stream.

The club operates the Little Fella Trout Hatchery, receiving, in 2023, a Cooperative Nursery Grant from the commission for $65,000, which is one of the largest such grants ever awarded a coop. 

In July 2024, the club petitioned the board with more than 200 signatures urging a resumption of stocking in Freeman Run.

“Connect the dots,” said Arway, of the recent board decision. “It’s obviously catering to a special interest which has the ear of (commissioner) Bill Brock— their advocate to get their favorite fishing hole restored.”

Brock, who represents northcentral Pennsylvania, where many Class A waters are located, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did a representative of the Potter County Anglers Club.

Allowing Freeman Run to be stocked again “is tantamount to allowing hatchery pollution of a stream,” Arway said, calling it not just unethical but illegal.

“It is a violation of the Fish and Boat Code, “which prohibits commission actions that are detrimental to the protection, preservation and management of fish.”

Charles Charlesworth, one of two commissioners who voted against the proposal, accused fellow board members of “caving to political influence.”

“Bill Brock orchestrated this whole thing, and his state legislator put pressure on him,” Charlesworth said, discounting claims that stocking Freeman Run will boost the local economy. “The reality is that no one serious about fishing has to travel to fish a stocked stream.”

Rep. Martin Causer and Sen. Cris Dush represent Potter County in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Dush could not be reached for comment.

Pennsylvania stocks 3.2 million brook, brown, rainbow and golden rainbow trout annually into 691 streams and 130 lakes. The state’s 150 cooperative nurseries contribute an additional 1.2 million trout throughout the year. There are many places to catch stocked trout.

At about $3 a fish, the commission reports spending $12.7 million annually to rear trout in its eight hatcheries.

Licensed trout anglers—who numbered 559,653 last year—pick up most of the tab through the purchase of trout permits, and the Sport Fish Restoration Act kicks in additional funding, using a formula based largely on license sales. The $10.1 million allocated by the feds in 2025 was used for hatchery operations.

The commission receives no general tax revenues.

While Pennsylvania’s stocking program is 150 years old, the Class A initiative was launched in 1983 to protect and promote native brook trout, Pennsylvania’s state fish, and has since grown to include naturalized rainbow and brown trout where certain criteria are met. 

Freeman Run also has native brook trout that migrate up and down the watershed, although none were documented by PFBC in section 4 in the most recent electroshocking survey. The July 15-16, 2025 survey took place in extremely hot weather when native brook trout are likely to migrate to the headwaters.

The Class A threshold for wild brook trout is a biomass of 30 kg/ha, and for wild browns or a combination of wild brown and brook trout 40 kg/ha.  On Pennsylvania’s 51 known wild rainbow streams, the threshold is 2 kg/ha.

Section 02 of Freeman Run was one of the first waters enrolled in the Class A program. Today, Class As number just over 1,200 stream sections and comprise a mere 4 percent of flowing water in Pennsylvania. The state is second only to Alaska in its number of stream miles.  

The commission’s policy of automatically removing streams from the stocking schedule when they are found to be Class A became an issue in 2015 when the board was asked to grant stocking exemptions on 10 popular wild brown trout fisheries, including the Little Lehigh, Yellow, and Monacacy creeks. 

The matter was put out for public comment and, despite opposition from more than half of all respondents, the board greenlighted stocking on all 10 waters. 

PA Council Trout Unlimited president Len Lichvar served on the fish and boat commission board at that time, and voted against the exemptions, believing they would set a concerning precedent.

“Staff assured us that no more Class As would be stocked,” he said. “But I knew that wasn’t true. I knew there would be more, and within a few years, three more streams were exempted. Freeman Run will make four.”

The commission recently revised criteria for considering exemptions. They include streams with a history of stocking for fishing derbies and other permitted activities, or where stocking was done on private sections closed to public angling when they were found to be Class A. Consideration also is given to streams where the commission, a coop nursery, and/or private entity stocked the year prior to Class A designation. The water must be open to the public, support angler use at least equal to the statewide median on the opening weekend of trout season, and be managed with special regulations. It cannot contain wild brook trout.

Exemptions are valid for five years.

The board has never voted to deny a stocking exemption on a Class A stream section that met the criteria, according to commission spokesman Mike Parker: “They have always voted to approve the exemption.” Because of this history, he said, the board voted in July to give the executive director the authority to approve stocking exemptions if they meet existing criteria, as a way to expedite the process. Under this change, board approval will now be required only when criteria are not met, as with Freeman Run. 

Dave Rothrock, Trout Unlimited policy chair, expressed concern that recent board actions could jeopardize the integrity of the Class A program and set a worrisome precedent for the state’s best wild trout waters. 

“There’s real potential to skew the interpretation of the results of the Freeman Run study to support the continued stocking of other Class A streams,” he said. “Transferring authority to approve exemptions to the executive director removes the transparency that is really important to the process.”

Lichvar called Freeman Run “a potential Pandora’s box,” asking “When social factors get hot on other streams, will stocking continue there, too?”

Habitat improvements are helping to generate new Class A candidates all the time, said commission board president John Mahn, noting that 28 sections were added to the program at the July meeting. And while he doesn’t foresee a flood of requests for stocking, he said, “if there’s another Freeman Run somewhere we’ll have to take that up, as well.” 

In service to all anglers, the commission must consider the social as well as scientific dimensions of angling when making decisions about fisheries management, he said, “and it’s not always black and white. Sometimes there are gray areas.”

Mark Nale, a nature photographer and retired biology teacher, is following the Freeman Run controversy as a wild trout angler who has fished the stream with ultralight tackle and spinners.

“I support the study, although I’m not sure it will be rigorous enough. But it’s important to note that a lot of factors affect wild trout numbers, including habitat quality, water temperature, post-spawn flooding, drought, and regulations,” he said. “Stocking over wild fish is low on the list.”

Jared Manning, of Bellefonte, addressed the board in July on behalf of Potter County anglers, camp owners and businesses to express confidence that stocking will result in “strong angler utilization” of the fishery, and that data will show wild trout still “will be thriving.” 

Trout Unlimited will continue to lobby its case against the Freeman Run proposal, Lichvar said. “It may not turn the tide, but we’ll ramp up pressure and we will make it uncomfortable for the decision makers.”

Commissioner Eric Hussar will lead a discussion on Freeman Run at PA Council’s annual meeting in Mill Hall, Clinton County, Sept. 20.

The next quarterly meeting of the fish and boat commission is slated for October 27 and 28 at the agency’s headquarters at 1601 Elmerton Avenue in Harrisburg. For more, visit www.fishandboat.com.

Comments about the Freeman Run proposal can be emailed to RA-pfbcregulations@pa.gov.

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